Best small 2-way floorstander?

Since I started this thread, I guess I'll try moderate the discussion a bit at this point. Tubegroover, I understand your frustration, but cut Dkuipers a little slack. Not everyone's an audio journalist. It's easier to tell the world which speaker you like but much harder to describe exactly why, and to put adjectives to paper (er.. screen). That's why some lucky guys get paid to listen to audio gear. I think Dkuipers is trying to say that he feels the Kharmas are more musically satisfying than the Merlins. Maybe he auditioned them after he bought the Merlins. My point is that everyone is entitled to an opinion, although not everyone may necessarily agree with it, and the opinion could in fact, be a very poor one. However, I do think that anyone who would simultaneously upgrade two systems with new speakers have got have some addiction to gear. Thanks for your opinion, Tml2, but unless you've actually auditioned the $65k Kharmas (or any Kharma speaker) and found it to be inferior to the Coincident, please try to refrain from any unsubstantiated attacks on Kharma. Heck, if I owned a $65k speaker (that weighs 600lbs!!!), I think $5.5k (less than 10% of the speaker) for beefy enough stands to put it on is not that outrageous. Geez, did I just say that $70k for a pair of speakers and stands is reasonable??? Well my name is not William Gates III, so I guess it's not! :-) Thank you all for keeping this discussion constructive.

A comment about "Hi-Fi" versus music. I just want to say one thing, Yes the Merlin's do ultimately sound like Hi-Fi that is to say you almost always know you are listening to an audio system instead of the real thing. I have only heard a few systems that ALMOST made me believe for a magical moment or two that I really was listening to live music. The Merlin's are included in that short list IN MY ROOM! All the talk about Hi-Fi versus music is a bunch of BUNK. Ultimately all we are really talking about is Hi-Fi systems and trying to approximate the real thing, at least that is my goal. If you don't believe it maybe you need to hear more live music and experience the obvious differences. Real music and Hi-Fi ARE TWO DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES. I really get on the High Horse when I see that phrase, which has become almost a buzz Mantra Hi-FI versus music, Hi-FI versus music, Hi-FI versus music. Maybe if you say it enough you will believe it. I say go hear some real music. My final 2 cents on this thread!

Sdcampbell, i have 3 mini monitors to recommend to you. The Reference 3A mini monitor. This speaker uses a 8 inch carbon fiber woofer and a silk tweeter. There is no crossover in the speaker. This speaker sounds so articulate. Here's a great pic of the Reference 3A http://shows.soundstagelive.com/shows/ces2000/product_13.shtmlspeakers.

Sdcampbell, The other 2 mini monitors i love, are the Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference. This speaker uses a Seas magnesium 6 1/2 midbase and a Scanspeak tweeter. This speaker looks and sounds great. Here's the review Soundstage did on them. http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/tyleracoustics_taylo.htm Here's another pic of them. This store is seling them on Audiogon. Check out how they look in this pic. They show the speaker in 2 different finishes. http://audiogo5.iserver.net/cgi-bin/auc.pl?spkrmoni&967863736&auc&3&4&

Sdcampbell, the third mini monitor i love, is the Aliante Pininfaria. This speaker look and sounds awesome. I saw a couple of people on Audiogon selling them. Here's a great pic of the Aliante Pininfaria http://www.aliante.com/aliproin.htm Thanks. JVC1040@yahoo.com